AIKEN, S.C. – The Savannah River Site’s (SRS) H Canyon has moved closer to restarting low enriched uranium (LEU) blend down by turning on the First Cycle unit operation for the first time in more than five years.

   In First Cycle, uranium from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is separated from aluminum, fission products and other impurities. It’s the fourth of five unit operations to restart following the DOE 2013 Amended Record of Decision, allowing SRS to process approximately 1,000 bundles of SNF and 200 High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) cores.

   “LEU blend down is estimated to restart within two years,” DOE Nuclear Material Stabilization Assistant Manager Patrick McGuire said. “After blend down, the LEU will be shipped to a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) vendor for the manufacture of reactor fuel to be used for the production of commercial nuclear power. The last shipment made to the vendor was in November 2011. As more material is shipped, more SNF will be able to be removed from storage in the SRS L Area Basin, processed through the H Canyon and shipped to TVA.”

   H Canyon Senior Control Room Operator Audrey Davis has worked in H Canyon for 31 years.

   “It’s a milestone to me, being close to retirement age and seeing this equipment start up again,” she said. “We are cleaning up the environment and playing a role in our nation’s nuclear nonproliferation missions by safely and productively dispositioning the spent fuel we have stored here. We are one step closer to having the blend down process up and running.”

   In the blend down process, highly enriched uranium recovered from bundles of spent fuel rods from foreign and domestic research reactors is mixed with natural uranium to make LEU. 

   “Disposition of the 1,000 bundles and 200 HFIR cores is expected to be completed in 2024, which would potentially allow DOE to authorize more missions for H Canyon,” said McGuire. “Producing LEU again in H Canyon helps keep our nation safe, while providing clean energy; it would be hard to find a better mission than that.” 

   H Canyon is the only production-scale, radiologically shielded chemical separations facility operating in the U.S. Constructed to produce nuclear materials for U.S. defense weapons programs, the facility later began dispositioning and stabilize nuclear materials and spent nuclear fuel from legacy cleanup, and foreign and domestic research reactors.